Olympian Language

Last night The Curmudgeon spent some time, not totally voluntarily, watching the Olympics, and he was appalled by some of the abuse of the English language he suffered at the hands of the mostly amateur broadcasters calling the games.

He was assaulted on numerous occasions by references to various athletes’ “skill sets” when we all – all – all – know that referring to those capabilities simply as “skills” would work perfectly well.

And once, that skill set paid dividends.

Ice skating commentator Johnny Weir

No word on the interest rate on those dividends.

The Curmudgeon sat in horror as the ice skating commentator with either a misshapen head or a ludicrous pompadour referred to a particularly young skater’s relative youth as his “juniorness” and his “juniorship.”

But without doubt the one that got the curmudgeonly blood boiling the most was a commentator – numerous times – describing the challenge some of the skiers faced because of the slope’s “aggressive snow.”